The EarthSky crew and neighborhood will current the lowdown on not one comet – however two comets – presumably seen in Earth’s skies in October and early November, 2024. We’ll be there LIVE MONDAY (October 7) starting at 12:15 p.m. CDT (17:15 UTC). Click on in for a “notify me” button.
- Not one, however two comets may grace our skies in October 2024.
- Look west after sundown for Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) starting round mid-October.
- Look east earlier than dawn for the sungrazer, Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS), starting in late October
See the perfect pictures of Comet A3 within the morning sky right here
Particulars on the sungrazer, Comet S1, right here
Earlier than it disappeared into the dawn glare
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) placed on a implausible present within the morning sky for Southern Hemisphere observers with darkish skies and good optical assist in September and early October. See superb pictures of the comet right here. As of this writing (October 7), Comet A3 is now misplaced within the solar’s glare and never seen. But it surely’ll quickly return to our night sky.
Shortly earlier than it was misplaced within the dawn glare, observers around the globe had been reporting that they had been beginning to detect the comet with the unaided eye. Even the tail was (barely) seen with out optical assist. However the perfect ought to be but to come back!
Comet A3 in early October 2024
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) reached perihelion, or its closest level to the solar, on September 27, 2024. It’s now between the Earth and solar and never seen from Earth.
Comet A3 shall be closest to Earth on October 12. Will it’s seen that quickly? Presumably. The comet is now passing nearly straight between Earth and the solar, making it difficult to view.
Beginning round October 14, Comet A3 shall be simpler to identify. See the charts beneath, which present the comet starting round October 14, and on the next evenings. The comet’s nice pace will trigger it to look noticeably increased within the western sky from one evening to the subsequent.
In late October, Comet A3 will move quickly in entrance of a collection of constellations, together with Serpens Caput and into Ophiuchus.
See our neighborhood picture gallery of the comet! It’s superb
How vivid? How straightforward to see?
Comets are unpredictable. And there’s no approach to know right now precisely how vivid any comet will turn into. However preliminary estimates recommend that Comet A3 may develop as vivid as magnitude 2.5 to 2 throughout closest method to Earth on October 12. Or possibly even barely brighter if we’re fortunate (or fainter if we’re unfortunate), since comet conduct is so troublesome to foretell.
So Comet A3 isn’t going to be a Comet of the Century. But when it continues to carry out properly, it may be the brightest comet of the yr … aside from one different chance.
Two vivid comets in October?
There’s a second comet in Earth’s skies that may turn into vivid, in actual fact even brighter than Comet A3. The ATLAS survey in Hawaii discovered each of them.
Comet C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) is what’s often called a sungrazer. It was first given the designation of A11bP7I, however now it’s formally C/2024 S1 (ATLAS) … or Comet S1 for brief. Predictions for the comet have it reaching as vivid as magnitude -5 to -7 when it comes closest to the solar, at perihelion, on October 28. These ranges would make the comet even brighter than the brightest planet, Venus. It’d even be seen within the daytime sky. Nonetheless, take into account that comets are notoriously unpredictable. The Southern Hemisphere may have the perfect view earlier than perihelion. After its shut encounter with the solar (if it survives!) – in late October and early November – it might placed on a implausible present for the Northern Hemisphere within the morning skies. It will undoubtedly be one thing to get up early for.
Particulars on the sungrazer, Comet S1, right here
Useful tricks to spot a comet
1. Ensure you’re wanting on the appropriate course and time. Comet A3 shall be seen low within the west after sundown starting round October 14. Comet S1 shall be seen in late October to early November, low within the east earlier than dawn.
2. You want a darkish, unobstructed sky. Begin wanting when the sky is darkish, however near dawn or sundown. Be sure there aren’t hills, timber or buildings blocking your view.
3. In the event you can’t see the comet together with your eye, attempt your telephone. Most cellphone cameras present an evening or low-light mode. However capturing a picture of the comet will that you just maintain the digicam firmly – or lean towards a hard and fast object like a tree – to keep away from shaky or blurred pictures. Attempt taking a couple of photos going through west after sundown (for Comet A3) or east earlier than dawn (for Comet S1). These pictures accumulate the sunshine for a couple of seconds, so that you may have the ability to catch the comet in your pictures, even when you can’t see it with the attention.
4. AFTER you’ve positioned the comet, use binoculars or your eyes to brush in that space within the sky. You may uncover that, in actual fact, you can see each the comet and its tail together with your eye alone.
5. In the event you see it, attempt taking your individual measurements of the comet’s tail. For instance, when you take a superb look by means of a pair of binoculars that has a 5-degree discipline of view, and you’ll see the tail extending about 3/5 of that discipline, you’re seeing round 3 levels of the tail. And which means you’re seeing with your individual eyes a cometary tail that appears so long as six moon diameters!
A speedy ball of ice and mud
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS is blazingly speedy. It’s tearing by means of the inside photo voltaic system at 180,610 miles per hour (290,664 kph) or 80.74 km per second relative to Earth. With a small telescope, you possibly can really see its superb pace. You possibly can watch the comet’s location progressively change by evaluating its actual place towards background stars simply quarter-hour later.
Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS’s disintegration rumors
Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS hasn’t been performing as folks anticipated it to. Because it was approaching the inside photo voltaic system in early 2024, it wasn’t brightening as a lot as anticipated. After which a research steered the cometary nucleus was fragmenting.
The paper’s writer, Zdenek Sekanina, a Czech-American astronomer and comet knowledgeable at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, mentioned, on July 8, 2024, that the comet entered a complicated section of fragmentation. He mentioned the top of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS was inevitable.
Nonetheless, comets are infamous for being erratic and unpredictable. And this one proved to be as properly.
Discovery and naming
The Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Final Alert System (ATLAS) telescope in South Africa found Comet C/2023 A3 on February 22, 2023. Moreover, observers at Purple Mountain (Zijin Shin or Tsuchinshan) Observatory in China discovered the comet independently on pictures from January 9, 2023. Due to this fact, the comet additionally has the nickname Tsuchinshan-ATLAS.
At discovery, the comet was nonetheless 7.3 astronomical items (AU) from the solar, and shining at a dim magnitude 18.
Preliminary evaluation of its trajectory suggests comet “A3” completes an orbit across the solar each 80,660 years.
Comet A3 in social media
That is a fully superb simulation of the conduct of Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) by @nlefaudeux ? #Comet #Astronomy #TsuchinshanATLAS #Cometa #CometC2023A3 #Tsuchinshan #C2023A3 #FollowTheComet pic.twitter.com/lpAWezXzp4
— Yuri Beletsky (@YBeletsky) September 27, 2024
Getting up at 4am to see Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS rising over the Toowoomba vary
— George Zhou (@georgezhouastro.bsky.social) September 22, 2024 at 3:54 PM
Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is lastly right here ! ???I captured this picture this morning at 09:22 UTC from @LCOAstro in Atacama desert in Chile ?? The view was completely spectacular ! The clouds had been continually shifting simply above the horizon, however we bought actually fortunate when the… pic.twitter.com/AoClHkatFr
— Yuri Beletsky (@YBeletsky) September 24, 2024
Thus far Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS appears to be like like a fuzzy star to the bare eye searching the cupola home windows. However with a 200mm, f2 lens at 1/8s publicity you possibly can actually begin to see it. This comet goes to make for some actually cool pictures because it will get nearer to the solar. For now a… pic.twitter.com/JstaSLJ4Ui
— Matthew Dominick (@dominickmatthew) September 19, 2024
It’s already potential to barely see the Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) from northern places however faint and really very low over the horizon.
Inages:
Left: 21/9/24 by Val Italo from Atlanta, USA
Proper: 22/9/24 from Canary Islands by Frank A. Rodríguez @AstroEduca pic.twitter.com/Kh1WqDhx5K— Xavi Bros (@Xavi_Bros) September 23, 2024
Backside line: Comet A3 Tsuchinshan-ATLAS isn’t the one potential comet for the approaching month. There are 2 comets that may turn into vivid in October 2024.
Supply: Inevitable Endgame of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS (C/2023 A3)
